State Shuts Down North Hempstead Landfill

By SARAH LYALL,

Published: June 27, 1991

NORTH HEMPSTEAD, L.I., June 26—
The State Department of Environmental Conservation today permanently shut down the North Hempstead landfill, the last operating landfill in Nassau County.

In announcing the decision, the state Environmental Commisioner, Thomas C. Jorling, said that the town had failed to resolve problems at the landfill, including poor drainage that had filled the air with a rotten odor and left gallons of liquid runoff collecting at the bottom.

"The Department cannot with confidence make any judgment that continued landfilling would not re-create an odor situation or risk contamination of groundwater," Mr. Jorling said in a statement released today.

Until January, when its landfill was temporarily closed because of the odor, North Hempstead had been the only municipality in Nassau County to continue dumping trash in a landfill. In the face of a state law requiring most landfills on Long Island to close last year, the rest of Nassau County's towns and cities had already begun incinerating or shipping away their garbage.

North Hempstead had hoped to receive an extension of its permit this spring, but today's decision means that it will not. Several towns at the East End of Suffolk County still operate landfills in violation of the law and have sued the state to be allowed to keep doing so.

The Town Supervisor, Benjamin Zwirn, said today that he thought the state's decision was fair. The town is seeking permits to build several recycling and composting plants and hopes to eventually recycle about 70 percent of its waste.

"I think the state did the right thing," Mr. Zwirn said. "This is a message to all of us that it's time to get the facilities built to increase the recycling and waste reduction, and move on."

Since January, North Hempstead, which has about 218,000 residents, has been shipping its garbage to a transfer station in Brooklyn at a cost of $1 million a month more than it paid to run the landfill. Toxic Gases and Small Explosions

The landfill has long been the focus of local concern. One inactive section of it is a Federal Superfund site that has never been cleaned up. Over the years, toxic gases migrated from the landfill, causing small explosions and a great deal of worry for the neighboring residents.

Last fall, residents from as far as seven miles away reported a smell akin to rotten eggs emanating from the landfill. An investigation revealed that water runoff, or leachate, had been collecting at the landfill's bottom and had combined with rotting garbage to create the smell.

Mr. Zwirn said even though the landfill is to be closed, the work there is by no means over. Over the next few years, North Hempstead will have to pay upward of $10 million to continue draining leachate and collecting trapped gases.

Photo: Trucks dumping garbage last year at the North Hempstead, L.I., landfill, which was shut down yesterday by the State Department of Environmental Conservation. The last operating landfill in Nassau County had failed to resolve problems, including poor drainage and a rotten odor. (Vic DeLucia/The New York Times)